Rereading Ways of Seeing

It's been a few years since I read Ways of Seeing by John Berger - it must be the classic art school text. I loved the visual essays and that he didn't overexplain. It's a book worth revisiting from time to time - almost every statement he makes could be disputed or argued or expanded further - the point of his argument.  What I really got from it this time was the idea of reproduction - he talks about the changes in the technologies of reproduction which have given an almost religious value to the original work which it did not have originally. The authenticity of the work beyond it's image has new value. However, what really struck me, and is a thread I have often thought of, is that in my work, and part of the reason I am drawn to moving image, photography, and also writing, is that the reproduction is the original.

If I buy a novel or a CD, I am buying the real thing. There is no other, better version unless I go to a concert and see the musician, or attend a reading by the writer. These are special events, which I do enjoy and value. There is nothing like the actual experience - in a gallery watching moving image, seeing the quality of print and paper of a photograph, but still, I can buy the real thing in a good reproduction. There are many special exceptions to this, even within my own work - contraptions or installations I have made. Still, I aim for a large body of my work to exist in the many, like film, words, music. Existing in the air.

9th March 2011